Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Blanche Maness will serve as acting principal after departure of Benjamin Costa.
Benjamin Costa, principal of Francis C. Hammond 1 Middle School in Alexandria, has resigned. This school year was Costa’s first at Francis Hammond. In a letter to parents, Costa did not say why he was resigning other than to “pursue other educational leadership opportunities.” Costa most recently served as the assistant principal of Westland Middle School in Bethesda, Md. He began his career as an English teacher in 1995 and has served the Montgomery County Public Schools division as a dean of students, an alternative education site coordinator and a student support-family counselor. Blanche Maness, a veteran Alexandria City Public Schools administrator and former school board member, will serve out the year as acting principal. Costa …
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Law enforcement officials, Alexandria schools officials held panel discussion on school safety Tuesday night.
Alexandria City Public Schools has made changes in safety precautions following the December school massacre in Newtown, Conn., when 20 children and six staff members were killed. “We have done some site safety assessments on several of our schools,” Wendy Brown, assistant director of facilities, occupation health, safety and risk management for ACPS, said during a Tuesday night school safety panel discussion at T.C. Williams High School. “And we have implemented several changes.” Brown said she was not at liberty to publicly discuss all the changes. Panelist and ACPS Superintendent Morton Sherman added, “What I learned years ago, and what I learned again after Newtown, is the best way to secure a school is to have interaction, make sure …
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Student's suicide last year sparked drive to bring suicide awareness and prevention program to high school.
One in four children in high school today is clinically depressed. Alexandria City Public Schools Superintendent Morton Sherman knows this firsthand—his own daughter, Rachel, attempted suicide in high school. “From a family point of view, we struggled a long time as a family, with guilt and questions, and was it our fault?” Sherman told the T.C. Williams High School PTSA Monday night. “… We as a country do not deal with this in a candid and forthright way, like we should.” Now, Sherman said, Rachel is doing “terrific,” is a principal at a preschool program and has two children of her own. His comments came as part of a presentation on a new program to de-stigmatize depression and suicide prevention, “More than Sad.” Seniors at T.C. …
Crystal Vanison, the education committee chair of the Alexandria chapter of the NAACP, thanks attendees of a March 12 forum with ACPS Superintendent Morton Sherman and others.
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Tuesday, March 19
To the editor, On behalf of the Alexandria Chapter of the NAACP, we would like to thank everyone that attended the question-and-answer session with ACPS Superintendent Morton Sherman on March 12. Your questions and ours show that there is much work to be done. As stated during the forum, the NAACP strives to ensure that all students have access to an equal and high-quality public education by eliminating education-related racial and ethnic disparities in our public schools. As the education committee chair and Alexandria Branch as a whole, we plan to become more active in the community to ensure that our mission is not in vain. Whether it is a PTA or School Board meeting, City Council hearing or wherever we need to be, we plan to be …
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
The School Board for Alexandria City Public Schools has decided to seek legal counsel regarding a grants foundation set up by the superintendent and others.
The Alexandria City Public School Board is seeking legal counsel in regards to a grants foundation set up by the school division’s superintendent and others. Several board members asked Superintendent Morton Sherman at a Jan. 10 School Board meeting why, if this foundation did not require board approval for its creation, does it use the ACPS name and keep an ACPS mailing address and contact phone number. At that meeting, board members asked for more details about the foundation to be presented at its next meeting, which was Jan. 24. The board received a stack of materials from the superintendent just prior to the 7 p.m. meeting on Jan. 24 and decided it did not have sufficient time to review it to enable effective discussion at that time. …
ACPS School Board revokes a decision by the school division's superintendent by reinstating a Sheltercare teacher who oversees the special program for at-risk children.
The Alexandria City Public Schools’ board voted to reinstate a teacher overseeing a city facility for at-risk children known as Sheltercare after ACPS top management abruptly ended his contract. “We’re pleased that the children are once again being served,” School Board Chairman Karen Graf told Patch. The board argued that because the position is a line item on the budget, the superintendent and his deputy had no business removing the position without prior discussion with the board and public. Dorothea Peters, who serves on the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Commission, testified on behalf of Sheltercare at the board’s Jan. 10 meeting, saying ACPS notified teacher Michael Casey on a Thursday in October 2012 that his last day would …
Monday, January 28, 2013
The fiscal year 2014 budget proposal is for $228 million and asks the city for about 5 percent more funds than last budget cycle.
Alexandria City Public Schools’ superintendent released a $228 million fiscal year 2014 operating budget, a nearly 5 percent increase over the last budget. The proposal asks the city to offer an appropriation of $188.7 million, a 5.1 percent increase from FY13. Per pupil, the requested budget shows a drop from $17,693 in FY13 to the requested $17,336 per pupil in FY14. ACPS noted in its release of the budget that the school division has the most diverse student population and the greatest number of students – 56 percent – who are eligible for free and reduced-price meals in Northern Virginia. Superintendent Morton Sherman’s FY14 proposed combined funds budget proposal is $247 million, a 3.3 percent increase from the prior fiscal year’s …
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Board members for Alexandria City Public Schools question whether the ACPS Educational Foundation has been set up in an appropriate manner.
Alexandria’s School Board pressed the superintendent of ACPS for answers on the creation and operation of a grants foundation, asking whether its current ties to the public school system were appropriate and transparent. Morton Sherman, superintendent of Alexandria City Public Schools, told board members at a public meeting last week that the new foundation’s aim was to “support the dreams of teachers – be able to give them voice, give them reality.” He referred to the Dream Fund set up several years ago, which has been overloaded with requests from teachers wishing to embark on special projects. This year, the Dream Fund to fulfill teachers’ wishes has about $57,000 in the budget “but we had 74 requests…totaling $234,000,” he said. Twenty…
Friday, December 21, 2012
The track is open for public use after school hours.
Local city and school officials gathered Friday morning at Francis C. Hammond Middle School to dedicate a new synthetic turf field and track that have been long in the making. Alexandria City Public Schools Superintendent Morton Sherman compared the new field to the school’s previous grassy field. “Last year, had we stood on this field after a rain, what would we have seen out there?” he asked. “Mud!” the students cried. “A pigsty,” Sherman said. “We would have seen lots of water, and we would not have been able to use this field for a couple of months afterwards, until it dried out.” Sherman honored Alexandria resident Gary Carr, who has children in the school system and for years has pressed the school board for for improved sports …
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
All schools now have power.
10:12 p.m. update — All Alexandria City Public Schools now have power and have been checked to ensure there will be heat in the morning. — — — — 8 p.m. update — Power has been restored at Douglas MacArthur Elementary School. — — — — Alexandria City Public Schools and offices will open on time on Wednesday, though three elementary schools remain without power. James K. Polk, William Ramsay and Douglas MacArthur elementary schools are without power, according to the ACPS Twitter feed. Re-evaluation of those schools will occur Wednesday morning and any necessary modifications to the schools’ schedules will be announced as early as possible. ACPS Superintendent Morton Sherman in an email to some school community members asked parents to be …
Don
10:46 am on Saturday, May 11, 2013
Teachers throughout ACPS call Sherman's tenure the lost decade. How apropos! more ›